The itinerary was supposed to be a great one, though they did what they could to spend an extra night at the departure port, without prior notice and then skip an initially intended port before Lyon. The biggest complaints we had were Cruise director and chef. The director was being obnoxious and pompous & the chef was constantly saying how amazing he was and that if we didn't like food then don't tell him. Sure he was joking but the problem was every time we had a food issue, which was two or three times per day, nobody would listen nor deal with our issues. The food servers seemed nice on the surface though few ever smiled. Soups were served mostly lukewarm and when we asked to please replace them with hot, they told us, "I will ask the chef", When we asked for a second appetizer or a sample of a different plate, we were told, "NO, that is impossible". When my wife was not sitting next to me, and I was asked to place my food order, they would not take the order because she was not there. One positive review, the cabin crew was great, smiled and helpful. The tours offered in south of France are very nice, though a little pricey for what they are. But we filtered through them and found a few wine-oriented tours that were worth taking. In addition to the above concerns about cruising with Viking (Yes, for the first time),

I have these complaints; a) Pay for Play; I overheard two loyal Viking passengers receive free cruises because they complained about service. All I ever got was, "maybe our servers are new",

(b) if Viking is not providing airfare, Viking does not, in advance, provide any port name or specifics so you are able to self navigate to the departure port, Read more